HomePod HomePod noticeably slower after iOS 15

[B/D]

Does that beta auto install if you’re in iOS 15.2 beta?

No. Homepod beta OS is private and invite only. You´d have to download and install the beta profile manually, which I don´t recommend you to do. Homepod OS betas are known for bricking devices. I personally don´t use betas in any of my devices, but to each its own.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Huh?. Damn.


Given that Apple is aware of all this, and given that they have reached to some people to further investigate this issues (even requesting some testers to send to them their homepods units), and said that 15.2 will bring improvements and fixes across the board for the homepod family, I wonder if all these Siri/Homekit issues are sever side issues and therefore no software update can fix them. In any case, is up to Apple to solve this mess...

I feel like it’s an issue with Siri interpreting the success/fail response from HK. My lights all respond more or less instantly, it’s Siri being a dithering idiot after the scene has been set. Remember, HomeKit is all local. We saw a similar interpretation issue when 15 was released with HK not receiving the correct lux values from light sensors and automations broke (still not fixed).

 

[betweenupdates]

Freaking Apple, what a disaster

Been pulling hairs out for the past few weeks. No solutions.

“Taking too long, one sec, on it, Working on that” I’ve heard those commands at least 5 times a day since iOS 15 broke our home.

What’s weird though is now I also randomly open the home app and see the hue lights get stuck in an “updating…” state for like 3-4 seconds before kicking in to being active.

We have a seriously fast internet connection. Wi-Fi 6 triband mesh backhaul, perfect coverage everywhere, Like 1% noise, Apple TV Etherneted and HomePod literally next to it.

I’m like 99.999% sure this is a HomeKit bug. 15.1.1 didn’t fix anything regarding this issue.

Has anyone gotten any sort of confirmation from Apple that they are a) confirming this is a bug, 2) are working to fix it?

Also the moment this starts working normally again, if ever, I’m disabling auto updates on all HomePods.

Also all these “HopePod” nightmares are making me seriously consider switching to Sonos.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Freaking Apple, what a disaster

Been pulling hairs out for the past few weeks. No solutions.

“Taking too long, one sec, on it, Working on that” I’ve heard those commands at least 5 times a day since iOS 15 broke our home.

What’s weird though is now I also randomly open the home app and see the hue lights get stuck in an “updating…” state for like 3-4 seconds before kicking in to being active.

We have a seriously fast internet connection. Wi-Fi 6 triband mesh backhaul, perfect coverage everywhere, Like 1% noise, Apple TV Etherneted and HomePod literally next to it.

I’m like 99.999% sure this is a HomeKit bug. 15.1.1 didn’t fix anything regarding this issue.

Has anyone gotten any sort of confirmation from Apple that they are a) confirming this is a bug, 2) are working to fix it?

Also the moment this starts working normally again, if ever, I’m disabling auto updates on all HomePods.

Also all these “HopePod” nightmares are making me seriously consider switching to Sonos.

Totally agree, it’s just not good enough for what Apple are charging for products. It would be acceptable from some cheap brand you buy off AliExpress but from the leading tech company? Absolutely not.

I have had no confirmation nor have I been asked for any additional info from Apple after my report.

If this isn’t resolved with 15.2 I’m calling Apple Support and demanding they open a case on this. I suggest everyone else does the same. They cannot break our products with software updates and then just expect us to be ok with that. If they haven’t heard our complaints yet, we just need to be louder.

 

[Squuiid]

Freaking Apple, what a disaster

Been pulling hairs out for the past few weeks. No solutions.

“Taking too long, one sec, on it, Working on that” I’ve heard those commands at least 5 times a day since iOS 15 broke our home.

What’s weird though is now I also randomly open the home app and see the hue lights get stuck in an “updating…” state for like 3-4 seconds before kicking in to being active.

We have a seriously fast internet connection. Wi-Fi 6 triband mesh backhaul, perfect coverage everywhere, Like 1% noise, Apple TV Etherneted and HomePod literally next to it.

I’m like 99.999% sure this is a HomeKit bug. 15.1.1 didn’t fix anything regarding this issue.

Yep, same here. I use enterprise Cisco Wi-Fi and controller, enterprise switching, HomePod next to ethernet connected AppleTV 4K, and synchronous gigabit internet.

If the commands are issued via the Home app on an iPhone/iPad all works fine and virtually instantly.
Commands to Siri on the HomePod...“Taking too long, one sec, on it, Working on that”

15.1.1 has done literally nothing to fix this. Following snippets on the 15.2 HomePod beta also seems to indicate they've not fixed it yet there either.

C'mon Apple, this is embarrassing dev work by one of the world's biggest tech companies.

 

[Cassandle]

I’ve found that the HomePod no longer responds to "hey Siri", instead the iPhone, iPad or watch does. Which is annoying when I’m specifically asking Siri to play music.

Before this update, HomePod was always at the front of the ’queue’ to respond to “hey Siri” requests.

Also Airplaying music from Mac to HomePod is a laggy mess.

 

[jacklink01]

This issue has been driving me crazy for over a month! it's insane that 15.1 didn't fix it. They HAVE to know about this, but releasing a fix is clearly not a priority. Everyone needs to send in feedback to Apple so they feel the pressure!

 

[twistedpixel8]

This issue has been driving me crazy for over a month! it's insane that 15.1 didn't fix it. They HAVE to know about this, but releasing a fix is clearly not a priority. Everyone needs to send in feedback to Apple so they feel the pressure!

I wonder if this is only affecting a small number of people and that’s why Apple isn’t addressing it.

 

[Arran]

I wonder if this is only affecting a small number of people and that’s why Apple isn’t addressing it.

An update... Over the Holidays I did a factory reset on all my HomePods. Marked improvement. Previously the goodnight scene always gave, "working on it... still working on it... this is taking too long!". After the factory reset it's only happened once now (out of four/five tries)

The other thing I changed (at the same time unfortunately - so no idea if it helped) was I deleted all my wifi SSID/password combos. Many were from vacation rentals/airports/hotels I haven't used in years. Some I didn't even recognize. On Mac: System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Preferred Networks. I deleted everything and then re-added my home wifi only. That also appears to have improved Safari browsing on my iPad. Pages load much faster now.

 

[StumpyBloke]

I can pretty much guarantee that in a few days you will be back to the ineffectual piece of crap that Siri is on the HomePod. I’ve done what you’ve done and it made a difference, unless it was coincidence, for a very short time before going back to being the big bag of crap that it is.

 

[Arran]

I can pretty much guarantee that in a few days you will be back to the ineffectual piece of crap that Siri is on the HomePod. I’ve done what you’ve done and it made a difference, unless it was coincidence, for a very short time before going back to being the big bag of crap that it is.

So I did a few more experiments and it's not as random as I first thought.

"Goodnight" is consistently broken on my original HomePods, but works fine on the one HomePod mini I have. That explains the variability - I didn't notice which HomePod was acting on the "Goodnight" request.

That said, regardless of which generation of HomePod executes the request, the lights (all 35 of them) turn off at the same speed and the scene completes as expected. It's just the original HP's that keep wittering on about "something taking too long" after everything's gone dark.
...

 

[twistedpixel8]

So I did a few more experiments and it's not as random as I first thought.

"Goodnight" is consistently broken on my original HomePods, but works fine on the one HomePod mini I have. That explains the variability - I didn't notice which HomePod was acting on the "Goodnight" request.

That said, regardless of which generation of HomePod executes the request, the lights (all 35 of them) turn off at the same speed and the scene completes as expected. It's just the original HP's that keep wittering on about "something taking too long" after everything's gone dark.
...

Almost seems like having multiple HomePods is a large factor in this issue. Like they are having issues communicating. However you’d think that the “primary” one would always respond fine in that case but neither of mine do.

It’s really odd because it seems like everything happens at the same time. You give the request, then there’s a delay, then the lights all change at almost exactly the same time and then Siri continues to babble about apparently not receiving a response. I imagine she eventually does because otherwise she would say something like “that didn’t work” or “some of your devices didn’t respond” as she does when I physically switch power off for one or more device in a scene.

I wonder if Apple just changed to really crappy Siri servers with iOS 15 and they just respond really slowly.

 

[-AG-]

Resurrecting an old thread sorta.

After months of trying to work out what was causing these issues I think that i have narrowed them down to 2 things.

The first being onboard commands. Since Apple added them to the HomePods they have been "Working on it" more often. This i feel likely links to issue 2. That being the primary hub issue. Its all well and good that we have multiple HomePods, HomePod Minis and Apple TVs in our homes but only 1 will act as the primary hub and the rest are in standby. The issue with that is it seems to default to the mini which is limited to WIFI N and not the Apple TV that is on Ethernet.

Apple either needs IOS 15 to change the way the hubs work so that you can dedicate a primary hub that is always on OR release the mythical HomePod With a screen that has been rumoured for ages, that can be the all encompassing ethernet connected Home Hub.

Hopefully something gets released at the spring event this year.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Apple either needs [to] release the mythical HomePod With a screen that has been rumoured for ages, that can be the all encompassing ethernet connected Home Hub.

Hopefully something gets released at the spring event this year.

We should not need to purchase further expensive equipment to return our already purchased expensive equipment to working order just because of a software update. That is indicative of a company who no longer gives a solitary hoot about their customers.

Apple needs to fix this at a software level as it’s evidently possible.

 

[TVreporter]

Echo many of the issues posted in this thread.

I’ll add another - I deleted an Onvis light strip by misktake (chose the wrong one) and now it won’t re-add. HomeKit just keeps saying it can’t find the accessory.

YouTuber ModernDayTech told me he’s heard it’s a common issue since iOS 15 with that brand. The update suddenly clashes with Onvis’ app.

Just a mess Apple - clean it up.

 

[B/D]

So 15.3 RC has solved the dreaded audio popping issue on the homepods (FINALLY!), as well as many Airplay issues. Lets hope that it also improves Siri and homekit performance. The public release is this week, could be even today.

Fingers crossed.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Lets hope that it also improves Siri and homekit performance. The public release is this week, could be even today.

Fingers crossed.

It doesn’t

 

[B/D]

It doesn’t

Damn it. Do you have the RC installed?

 

[StumpyBloke]

Damn it. Do you have the RC installed?

Yep on all devices. It’s still as as ever. Par for the course with Apple now. The reality for me, is there is absolutely zero improvement from the initial release of 15 software across the range. Sadly, I expect nothing better from them anymore.

 

[B/D]

Yep on all devices. It’s still as as ever. Par for the course with Apple now. The reality for me, is there is absolutely zero improvement from the initial release of 15 software across the range. Sadly, I expect nothing better from them anymore.

Yep on all devices

Homepods included?.

absolutely zero improvement from the initial release of 15 software across the range.​

Here I suppose you are talking only about homekit reliability/performance.

Because according to several reports, 15.3 RC has finally fixed the dreaded homepod popping issue, has improved Airplay performance and stability, has increased considerably the overall Siri responsiveness and in general, has made the homepods faster and more reliable. To me, its the tvOS release in a LONG time (since 14.6 was released), that has GREATLY improved things in the homepod realm, EXCEPT homekit, which is still borked.


But I´m still hopeful, because 15.3 is the first release in ages that shows that Apple still cares about the homepod platform.


If you were talking about IOS 15 in general, I dont know. It runs perfectly fine in my devices, except for the ocasional annoyance (like every OS).

 

[StumpyBloke]

Sorry yes I am referring specifically in this instance to HomePod/HomeKit

Still not fixed any of the individual issues I’ve got with iOS 15 which were introduced with that release way back when. But that’s already mentioned in another post.

 

[B/D]

Sorry yes I am referring specifically in this instance to HomePod/HomeKit

Still not fixed any of the individual issues I’ve got with iOS 15 which were introduced with that release way back when. But that’s already mentioned in another post.

Its very strange. I wonder if its something related with something they changed in the homekit code for IOS 15.

I´ve run homemade tests against homepods on 14.6, and its puzzling. Homekit works perfectly and consistently on the homepods with 14.6, which tells me is not a serverside issue, its software related. On the Homepods with 15.0 or higher, its a disaster.

The interesting thing is that the erratic behavior seems to affect to several brands of accessories, so there are not compatibility issues with one specific manufacturer.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Exactly, there are the same issues with at least two smart light brands one of which is Philips Hue (that’s the one I’m using in my house). Plus the usual on it, just a sec, this is taking longer than it should constant alerts from Siri itself.

As you say prior to 15 it worked really well so Apple of absolutely screwed the pooch on this.

 

[TVreporter]

Echo many of the issues posted in this thread.

I’ll add another - I deleted an Onvis light strip by misktake (chose the wrong one) and now it won’t re-add. HomeKit just keeps saying it can’t find the accessory.

YouTuber ModernDayTech told me he’s heard it’s a common issue since iOS 15 with that brand. The update suddenly clashes with Onvis’ app.

Just a mess Apple - clean it up.

Update: Onvis got back to me surprisingly quick to say it’s a clash with iOS 15.2 and they expect to rollout a firmware update later this week.

 

[B/D]

@StumpyBloke. Have you been able to test the 15.4 beta?